Research findings: 90% of those surveyed thought African-Americans are more likely to be mistreated by police.

According to the findings of a recent poll, 75% of young adults think police treat some groups of people better than others. The survey also shows that less than half of young blacks believe the police are in their neighborhoods to protect them. Ages of young adults in the study ranged from 18 to 30 years.

While the majority of the young adults surveyed believed that police treated groups differently, the numbers differed by ethnicity: More than 60% of white adults thought so, compared to more than more than 80% of Hispanics and Asian-Americans, and 90% of African-Americans. Of those respondents who believed in the differential treatment by police, 90% thought African-Americans are more likely to be mistreated.

Although the percentages of young adult African Americans and young adult white Americans who have been stopped by police are about equal, 75% for African-Americans and 74% for white Americans, the percentages of arrests for the two groups vary greatly: 28% for African-Americans and 15% for white Americans. Corresponding figures for Hispanics and for Asian-Americans are 68% Hispanics stopped by police, 22% arrested; and 59% Asian- Americans stopped by police, 10% arrested.

The poll also showed differential treatment by ethnicity in terms of police harassment or police violence. Only 8% of white Americans had experienced such treatment, compared with 4% of Asian-Americans, 16% of Hispanics, and 24% of African-Americans. However, 53% of African-Americans, 35% of Hispanics, 26% of Asian-Americans, and 22% of white Americans reported knowing someone what had been harassed or treated violently by police.

When asked how often they thought they could trust the police to do what is right, 73% of white Americans answered always or often, compared with 50% for Asian-Americans, 48% for Hispanics and 26% for African-Americans. While 48% of African-Americans thought police were in their neighborhood to protect them, larger percentages of other ethnic groups thought so: 66% of Hispanics, 74% of Asian-Americans, and 80% of white Americans.

The poll was conducted August 1-14, 2016 by GenForward using a sample drawn to be representative of the U.S. young adult population.